Monday, March 20, 2017

(EA Figures) Mass Effect Series I: John Shepard

To end these blast to the past figures, I am here to review Commander Shepard; my timing couldn't be any more perfect since tomorrow Andromeda does come out. As to when I'll have my copy, only this week will be able to tell. Then playing it is another story. Well, until that time, let's take a gander at Commander Shepard, courtesy of EA.

Nothing new in regards to the packaging. We've seen this before with my previous reviews.

I'll jump right in and point this out: he has a helmet that he can wear! That is an awesome addition since there isn't a lot of Shepard related figures that have him sport his classic helmet (definitely does NOT look like his ME2 or ME3 helmet). Good for it too since his face rendition isn't very good. We'll get to that but first lets look at the figure.

Save for a few coloring with the N7 stripes, the blue lights on his back, and the black parts of his armor, this Shepard is all metallic grey. It resembles Shepard's armor enough, but I think it misses a few points. The sculpt is good; it has a lot of rivets, different texturing, and a lot of 'plating' to make it resemble 'armor' rather than just painted out 'detail'. That's something I can appreciate.

The face is bad, I have to admit. It looks nothing like vanilla Shepard.

The helmet, while not perfect, does offer a new kind of aesthetic. Though he reminds me of Robocop for some reason with the color of his armor, the helmet, and all that.

Of course we all know how this articulation goes. There is really no need for me to go in depth at what he can't do and what he can do. You can get the basics, but that's about it. He can't even have a proper gun shooting action pose.

And while Playarts Kai Shepard does offer more articulation and accessories, the face resemblance doesn't hit home either. I am hoping a company like Figma or S.H. Figuarts pick up the Mass Effect franchise since they are pretty good at making their figures resemble the characters they are trying to depict. Still, I am grateful to have Mass Effect figures on my collection.

What can I say? The figures do have their share of problems. But figures that are out dated have some leeway in terms of how harsh I can judge them. Hindsight, I probably would have a waited a few months to open them since something is around the corner.... BUT it is Andromeda's release date so here I am celebrating that. Shepard, being the last that I own does come with some drawbacks, but hey, I still like this figure to some degree. Maybe in the future I'll pick up Thane and Miranda; MAYBE in the future, a new line of Mass Effect figures are around the corner to pay homage to the awesome trilogy.SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave